What are the fastest greens

[PCCraig]

I've played quite a few different places with really hard and fast greens, but it's always hard to tell if it's random or consistent due to weather conditions, green slopes, or something else.

Of all the courses I've played a bunch the most consistently fast greens I've played are at my home course, Town & Country in Saint Paul. They are old (I think most are at least 80+ y/o) classic greens that consist of mostly Poa and creeping bentgrass. Adding to the general speed is that there are a few greens with a ton of slope (mostly back to front) that can make keeping downhill putts on the putting surface difficult. The greens are fast most of the year but they hit another gear in the fall post Labor Day when the cooler temperatures allow for more aggressive cutting and rolling. I'm not really a speed freak when it comes to putting greens as I'll take smooth and slow any day...but the members at my course take a certain amount of pride in the speed and severity of our greens.

[Terry Lavin]

Chicago Golf Club's greens were rolling at 15 last year during Ryder Cup week.  They had the course as firm and fast as any I'd ever seen.  I had one shot out of a bunker that landed ten feet on the green and came back into the bunker.  My playing partner (no chop is he) putted a ball off the same green into the same bunker.  Being above or on the wrong side of the hole ensured three or more putts.  I don't know that they purposefully got the greens that fast to impress the many Ryder Cup guests who were in town, but it's at least a possibility.  The last time I played there, the greens were running closer to 11.5-12 to my recollection.

[Sean_A]

It has been a very long time since I played very fast greens.  I think the fastest I have seen were at Brora maybe 10 years ago.  They were extremely firm with little growth.  I couldn't guess at a speed, but if it is true that some of these links roll at 10ish, then I would say 12+.  In any case, they were too fast.

Ciao

[Lester George]

To echo Tony, Kinloch in June, and even faster in September.  Throughout the year, on average, as fast as there are, within reason.

Lester

[Keith OHalloran]

It has been said, but Sand Hills in late July were the fastest set of greens I have played. They ran pure and the speed made placement of your approach shots very important.

[Matthew Petersen]

The craziest ones have tended to be not so much intentional. I'm thinking of courses a few days or weeks shy of shutting down for overseeding and they start to essentially scalp the greens and not water. I have played on a few such days and downhill putts essentially only stop by finding the hole or existing the green surface. I've always wondered what a Stimpmeter reading would be for that kind of situation.

[Paul Stephenson]

Cherry Downs in Pickering, Ontario

I found myself putting defensively the whole way around, which is not the most enjoyable experience.

TK

I'll second that.  Those greens are far from flat as well.

They used to be faster before Clublink.

[David Kelly]

J Chrisham reminds me the that fastest green I've ever putted was the downhill putt from the back of the 11th green at Crystal Downs. I hit the green in regulation and finished the hole by picking up.

My only real knock on the course is that green. 

[BHoover]

The fastest greens that I've ever played were those at Brookside CC (Canton, OH) during the Ohio Am qualifier I played in May 2012.  The weather leading up to the event was in the low 70s, no humidity and clear skies.  The greens were frighteningly quick and rock hard.  They were rolling true, but beware if you found yourself above the hole.

[Andy Treen]

I've certainly played on a number of courses with very quick greens.  The two that stick out in my mind, where the greens were almost uncomfortably fast, are The Hideout GC in Naples, FL and Oyster Harbors Club in Osterville, MA.

I played The Hideout at the peak of season with good weather and I played Oyster Harbors in the middle of October with good weather.

- Andy

[Tim Gavrich]

The greens at The Olde Farm when I played a couple Octobers ago with Bart Bradley, Mike Hendren and Roger Wolfe were probably the fastest I've ever putted, in competition or otherwise. I looked like an absolute idiot MULTIPLE times that day on the greens, but it was a whole lot of fun.

RTJ GC and Shelter Harbor GC are in a tie for second in my recollection.

[Steve Kline]

It's hard for me to recall really fast greens from regular play because the three fastest greens I've played were in tournaments. From "slowest" to fastest.

3. Bandon Trails - 2007 Mid Am. The greens were very quick especially after the finish of the second round during the playoff to make match play. The second green was lightning putting down to the front-middle hole location. Thankfully I saw somebody chip down that way before my 40 footer or I might have putted it off the green.

2. Hyde Park Country Club - 2007 Mid Am Qualifier. Double-cut and rolled. Greens have a lot of slope and pins were on the edges of ridges and drop offs. I shot 71 with five three putts. I'd play the course many times over a 20 year period, but the greens were so fast I could never play enough break.

1. Carlton Woods - 2008 Carlton Woods Invitational. I don't know the Stimp reading but I'm guessing 13-14. I was playing with a member the first day. On the third, which is about 190 yard par 3 over water, the pin was in the front. The member and I both hit it on the back edge of the green. We had very similar lines but the member was about 5 feet further away. He putted off the green into the water. I was completely dumbfounded and figured I had no chance if the member did that. I managed to keep it on the green by about 6 inches. The fastest and truest greens I have ever played on. But, when you are unaccustomed to that speed it is really nerve wracking.

[Matt Glore]

The fastest greens I ever played were probably Sand Hills a few weeks ago, but I expected them with the heat and the anticipation of my first round out there. 

The greens that totally shocked me was my one day at Old Waverly.  They were probably nearly as fast, but totally unexpected.  A member I played a few holes with told me they were running faster that Augusta during masters week.  These had to be a true 12+ and I had never played a 10 or above before.  They were magnificent. 

[Mark Smolens]

I played a men's guest day at Onwentsia probably 20 years ago (pretty sure it was prior to the work done by Renaissance). It had been a brutally hot, dry summer, and those dry conditions had extended into the fall. I could not make a ball mark on an approach shot, even with a lofted club's approach, and the greens had to be three or four feet faster than the normally very fast greens there. The three guys from my office who were in the group couldn't play dead. I don't believe any of them had more than one or two two putt holes for the day.

I found the challenge of the greens to be exhausting. I recall that my caddie was very good, and I think I made a couple based upon his reads, but putting from above the hole was almost impossible.

[Wade Whitehead]

Kinloch, but Lester designed them to roll that fast.

The Olde Farm can get really quick.

WW

[Jim Tang]

Sand Hills.  Crazy fast.  This, after a significant rain storm the previous evening.

[Ian Andrew]

Dead Ones

[JMEvensky]

Dead Ones

Agreed.Several years ago,we re-grassed from bent to Champion on July 5th. We put no water on the greens for the entire preceding week.They were over the top fast for July 4th weekend.

[Jim_Bick]

At Old Chatham in NC, they stimped the last day before conversion to Bermuda and it was 17. Presumably the outer limit for bent, permanently dormant

[Matt Wharton]

Fastest bent greens I ever played was at Diamond Creek 3 or 4 years ago in the month of October with Roger Wolfe and Ed Oden.  They were extremely lean (low fertility) and very firm...like putting on a pool table slick as glass!

Fastest Bermuda greens I ever played was at Columbia C.C. about 6 or 7 years ago.  We were playing in a 4-person captain's choice fund raiser and they were nearly unputtable!  Roger Wolfe was there too.

My two cents,

[Ben Sims]

Look at all the warriors gather round the bar and exchange stories about their fights with over-the-top green speeds.  I wonder how many will champion a better maintenance expectation and the utter ridiculousness of green-speed envy while rolling up their shirt sleeve to proudly show their battle scars.  

[John Kirk]

More votes for Kinloch and Sand Hills.  You've never seen a ball roll uphill better than putts at Kinloch when the greens are really fast.  I'd say the fastest I ever saw them, they would have registered a Stimpmeter score of 15 feet.

[Sean Leary]

Look at all the warriors gather round the bar and exchange stories about their fights with over-the-top green speeds.  I wonder how many will champion a better maintenance expectation and the utter ridiculousness of green-speed envy while rolling up their shirt sleeve to proudly show their battle scars.  

Are you looking for stories about rounds on great courses that had greens that were too slow, because I have a couple of those
I played both Ballyneal and Chambers Bay when they first opened and were rolling about 4 on the stimp. Took a long time for one to recover from its reputation of slow greens and one still is trying to recover. And both are truly great courses.

Too slow greens can have a negative affect too...

[Jerry Kluger]

At last year's Dixie Cup we played May River and those greens were really moving.

[Jason Topp]

I played in a tournament and watched the super measure the greens at 12-1/2.  I thought they were slower than those at my club the week before. 

The impact of speed depends so much on the slopes of the greens.  Our greens are designed to be fast and are a bit boring at 10.  If the greens got to 10 at my former club you had trouble keeping a putt on the surface for many regular pin positions.